The Nut on Hank's Guitar

[Gatwick1946]

In the Shadows at Sixty Documentary, there seem to be something on the nut of Hank's Strat, which looks unfamiliar to my eyes.

In the scenes in Hank's studio in Australia, where he is explaining how he came up with the intro to Apache, and how he palm(or heel) mutes the notes in
Wonderful Land, the camera zooms in on the head stock of the guitar. The nut is one of the black type, made of a synthetic material nowadays. From most angles on other guitars in general, the nut would appear as a straight line (according to the direction of the viewer), with slots which are filled by the strings.

But I can made out a wider, dark shape under where the top E, B and G strings cross the nut, on the fret board side. Does not look like a shadow (no pun intended!)
or dirt, or staining. Does not look either, like those little rollers, which are sometimes fitted to prevent friction between nut and string.

I am puzzled and think back to those pieces of card or paper which were seen on THAT STRAT, back in 1959. Can anyone else see what I see and offer an explanation?

Kindest regards,
Christopher

[Hank2k]

Hi Christopher

I noticed that too. Ive watched and re watched it a few times but can't work it out!

Hopefully someone can shed some light on it

[SJB]

Some time ago I read that Hank stuffed the nut with paper or card to stop string rattle

I suppose the slots may have been opened too much.

[roger bayliss]

I zoomed into above picture from Steve. Appears right edge has the right sort of profile for a nut , on left side of g, b, e strings there is some sort of shadow I think. Might be the lighting ?

The 3 blobs are between the strings on fretboard side. Some notable light hitting headstock and frets , I think it is lighting causing the effect, cannot imagine fag paper used by his guitar tech !

[bor64]

First I thought when i saw it on screen moving, it was a Buzz Feiten system...

Nut1 (198 x 320).jpg (8.22 KiB) Viewed 7373 times

Cheers Rob

[Gatwick1946]

Thanks guys,

I am relieved to know that others can see it. Another of my interests is 2mm (N gauge) model trains, where if one looks too closely at things one falls prey to the danger of becoming a "Rivet Counter", i.e. worrying about tiny details that are almost invisible.

My money is now on it being a trick of the lighting/camera work, or a Buzz Feiten (never aware of this before) type of nut.

Kindest regards,
Christopher

[artyman]

Is it a compensated nut

[Gary Allen]

Funny how nobody noticed it on the reunited tour...

[Iain Purdon]

Maybe he didn’t use that guitar during the tour? There must have been plenty of them.

[dave robinson]

Looking at his recent album release, as well as the album 'Without A Word' , you can see it's a compensated nut.